'Shell Shaker' honors American Indians
By Taylor Kennamer
Assistant Arts & Entertainment Editor

I didn't really know what to expect when I picked up Shell Shaker, a novel by LeAnne Howe, a former visting professor of English. Oh, sure, from reading the back cover I had a few hazy notions of an interwoven past and present, Choctaw history and myths, someone called a "shell shaker" and a murder mystery. I was not, however, anticipating a journey through the metaphysical, a vendetta spanning six generations or an elderly woman who morphs into the body of a giant porcupine.

The novel alternates between the 18th century and 1991 and is set in the Choctaw community of Durant, Okla., and the ancestral Choctaw homeland in Mississippi.

At the center of the story are Shakbatina, an 18th-century Shell Shaker, and her descendants, the women of the Billy family. The novel opens with Shakbatina's death, a result of the treachery of Red Shoes, a Choctaw-Chickasaw warrior whom the Choctaws had once believed to be the Imataha Chitto, the "greatest giver," whose destiny it would be to unite the tribes.

Howe, who recently spoke at Reynolda house, parallels this story with that of Auda Billy, accused in 1991 of murdering Redford McAlester, the "casino chief" of the Choctaws. These two main events occur during the autumn solstice, Itilauichi, the time "when the earth shifts, É day and night are in perfect balance, (and) Indians have all the luck."

The plot twists and turns, pulling in threads from the afterlife, the Irish Republican Army and the mafia. Howe presents an intriguing cast of characters, including the fiercely proud Shakbatina, the aging warrior Koi Chitto, starlet-turned-funereal-chanter Dolores Love, and Auda's sister Adair, a stockbroker whose colleagues call her the "Wall Street Shaman."

In addition, there is James Joyce (a pseudonym), a courier for the I.R.A. who speaks in a series of incomprehensible stream-of-consciousness sentences. Then there is Isaac, author of "Advice to the Choctaw Lovelorn" and editor in chief of the newspaper Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Choctaws, But Were Afraid to Ask.

As if this weren't enough, there is Divine Sarah, an eccentric centenarian who claims to be the goddess Big Mother Porcupine and is apparently possessed by the spirit of the deceased French actress Sarah Bernhardt. One of the other characters describes her as "Yoda with hair."

Howe incorporates the dramatic, the sublimely beautiful and the ludicrous. After Auda Billy is accused of McAlester's murder, police search her mother's garage for the Big Peanut, the town's prize sculpture; a deputy admonishes Auda's Uncle, Isaac Billy, to "Remember this: whoever steals art generally turns killer."

Howe's extensive knowledge of Choctaw history permeates the work.

Details of bone-picking ceremonies for the dead are particularly fascinating, and the history of terrible atrocities committed in battle comes alive.

The only flaw caused by this comes in the first chapters, when the narration occasionally takes on the tone of a history book ¯ if, of course, history books ever were to include this vital part of our land's history.

At the very least, the reader must come away with some newly acquired knowledge, such as the fact that there are 66 Indian Nations in Oklahoma.

Shell Shaker should raise awareness of American Indian cultures, shamefully neglected by the majority of Americans.

Howe's presentation of more than 200 years of Choctaw history is both inspiring and heartbreaking.

However, while we're being politically correct, and at the risk of sounding cynical, Howe comes dangerously close to vilifying the Italian characters in the novel in the same way that American Indians have been vilified and stereotyped.

The Italians in Shell Shaker (granted there are only two) are mafioso caricatures.

They may have Ivy League educations, but in reality they are no more than thugs and hired assassins.

While I think I would be over-stepping the boundaries of the novel if I said that Howe is, by implication, applying this model to all Italians, I do think it's unfortunate that Howe imported her villains from a country that has been valiantly endeavoring to shake this very image.

On a related note, the author minces no words when speaking of the Inkilish and Filanchi, the English and French, who earn the title Osano ¯ horsefly or blood-sucker.

As Shakbatina says, "I'd often dreamed of hanging Inkilish okla intestines in the trees so everyone could see their s---."

This, however, I feel is perfectly understandable, given the context; let's face it, the founding fathers of the United States weren't exactly the good guys in the story of colonization.

At a couple of points the novel suffers from stilted dialogue, and at times it's easy for a reader uninformed about the Choctaw culture and language to forget what some of the Choctaw words explained in early chapters mean and get confused by the acceptance of person to animal transformations as a fact of life.

This said, overall Shell Shaker is beautifully written; the Choctaw culture gleams from its pages in vivid, brilliant colors.

"Hatak okla hut okchaya bilia hoh-illi bila," Shakbatina says. "The people are ever living, every dying, ever alive."

Any woman should enjoy the book purely for the virtue of its strong female characters and the respected role of women in the Choctaw culture.

As one character states, "Women are the essence of mother Earth. We create life and, during Green Corn, we shake shells to reconnect with all living things É Everything is everything, nana moma."

Howe's novel is definitely worth a read; while circulation may be limited, it can easily be found online at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com.

To quote the novel's final line, "Hekano, I am finished talking."